Internet empowers more of us to fix, not replace

Thursday

Dec 7, 2017 at 2:01 AM

The technology built on "planned obsolescence" is helping us help each other solve it. For example, I fixed my Keurig.

I'm tired of throwing stuff out that seems perfectly OK except for one stupid broken part. I find myself going online a lot, and you know what? A lot of stuff can be fixed, and people are doing it for themselves. In an extreme example, my brother built a shed after watching YouTube videos — and it hasn't even collapsed or anything.

I'm counting up the little things I've done myself and my confidence is growing. I've fixed window screens, water faucets, the computer, and, most recently, the coffeemaker. (An attempt at replacing a part on the dishwasher was, well, a wash.)

I don't remember how old our Keurig is, but I have had stuff in the car to donate to charity for longer. And the other day it just quit. Out of the blue. It made some weird gurgly noises and spit out about a tablespoon of hot water and that was it.

According to the interweb, it seemed the most likely problem was that minerals from the water have built up (scaled) inside the machinery, blocking the way. Following the most promising advice, here's what I did:

I unplugged the machine, removed all removable parts and cleaned them. I held the machine over the sink, turned it over and shook it a little in case something small was blocking the tube. I put it back together and filled the water tank with half vinegar and half water. I tried to run a small cup of water through. (No need to use a K-cup for this mess.)

That didn't help, but instructions say if it does, you're golden. Run the vinegar mixture all through and then some plain water through and you'll have a nice, clean happy coffee maker.

I, however, had to proceed by removing the water tank. In the based where the tank sits is a ½-inch circle where the water is sucked up into the machine. I found a drinking straw and placed it over the hole, wrapped the bottom of the straw with a paper towel and blew really hard to force the air into the intake tube to dislodge anything blocking the tube.

I plugged the machine back in and pressed a button to make it try to suck up water. It took up a little, and spit out a little, but not much. But I felt triumphant. This was progress.

I repeated this process until I had to go to bed, hoping the vinegar/water mixture would continue to soften the mineral deposits overnight. It actually took a couple of days of blowing in the straw and unplugging and plugging in and trying to blow water through until it started to give us full cups of hot vinegar water. Then we did a full tank of regular water and now it's fine. It's actually better than fine. The coffee actually tastes better.

Keurig suggests cleaning out its machines every three to six months. For this purpose, Keurig sells "descaling solution" for $13 for a 14-ounce bottle on its website. Other vendors' solutions are cheaper on Amazon, but none of them beat the $2.89-per-gallon distilled white vinegar that I suspect is their main ingredient.

Jennie Geisler can be reached at 870-1885 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNgeisler.